The trade deadline is less than a week away. The Yankees have already been active in the weeks leading up to it and based on Cash's comments earlier this week it sounds like they're going to continue to be active. They could use another starter, multiple bats, and I wouldn't mind at all if they found a way to add another reliable arm to the back end of the bullpen.

The biggest obstacle Cash has to overcome in executing his plan over the next 6+ days is the lack of valuable trade chips he has. The biggest source of trade assets is the team's catching depth. John Ryan Murphy might be the best asset right now, with Gary Sanchez still a close second. Francisco Cervelli hasn't been looked at as nearly the type of trade chip that the other 2 are, but could his recent stretch of strong play be working to change that?

Cervelli's been getting regular reps this week with Mark Teixeira out and he's performed very well. He had at least 1 hit in every game of the Texas series. Looking back further than that, you'll see that he's swung the bat well since the minute he came off the DL. He's hitting .343/.378/.486 in 35 July plate appearances with 5 doubles, 5 runs scored, and 3 RBI. For the season he's got a .293/.339/.414 slash line, he's thrown out 6 of 15 potential base stealers (40%), and he hasn't allowed a single passed ball. All of this has happened in a very limited sample size, but that kind of production on both sides of the ball would help a lot of teams.

Cervelli obviously doesn't have the upside of a Murphy or a Sanchez, and he doesn't come with the added luxury of multiple years of team control remaining. But he could be valuable to a contending team in need of a catcher and could be used in a small trade with another team to maybe bring in that extra relief arm, a mutually beneficial win-win for both sides. Then the Yankees could easily call Murphy back up and continue to groom him for the future. It's an option...